No let-up in Gaza deaths as UAE, Egypt, others talk truce

Israeli strikes across Gaza killed scores overnight and battles raged on Sunday in the besieged territory's south as Hamas was reviewing a proposal for a halt in the nearly four-month-long war.

French Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne was in Egypt and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken expected in the region in the coming days to push for a ceasefire and hostage release.

The health ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory said at least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip, more than 90 of them overnight.

The Hamas government media office said a kindergarten where families were sheltering was hit in the southern border city of Rafah, which is teeming with Palestinians displaced by the war.

At least 127 people were killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours in the Gaza Strip.

"There is no safe place in the Gaza Strip, from north to south," displaced man Mohammed Kloub told AFP in Rafah, which according to UN figures now hosts more than half of Gaza's population.

An AFP journalist reported strikes and tank fire on Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, with some air raids also hitting nearby Rafah.

‘Hitting them hard’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the army had "destroyed 17 of 24 (Hamas) battalions. Most of the remaining battalions are in the southern Strip and in Rafah, and we will deal with them."

"The pressure on Hamas is working, they are in a very difficult situation and we are hitting them hard," said Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

Strikes and tank fire on Khan Yunis, southern Gaza's main city, with some air raids also hitting nearby Rafah.

With the war set to enter a fifth month on Wednesday, international mediators were pressing to seal a proposed truce deal thrashed out in a Paris meeting of top US, Israeli, Egyptian and Qatari officials.

Sejourne, at the start of his first Middle East tour as foreign minister, said on social media that he had told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi of France's desire "for a humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza and restarting talks for a... two-state solution."

A top Hamas official in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said the group needed more time to "announce our position" on the truce deal.

Hamdan added that Hamas wanted "to put an end as quickly as possible to the aggression that our people suffer."

A Hamas source has said the proposal involves an initial six-week pause that would see more aid delivered into Gaza and the phased release of Israeli hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Criticism over US backing

Netanyahu hit back over criticism within his own cabinet that Washington has not fully backed Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. "We greatly appreciate the support that we have received from the Biden administration since the outbreak of the war," the premier insisted.

US President Joe Biden attends an event.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir had told the Wall Street Journal that US President Joe Biden was "busy with giving humanitarian aid and fuel (to Gaza), which goes to Hamas."

The United States is Israel's main international ally, providing billions of dollars each year in military support.

But in recent weeks it has insisted on greater protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip as well as the eventual creation of a Palestinian state.

Gaza rendered ‘unlivable’

Gazans have faced dire humanitarian conditions, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said on social media platform X that "there is very limited access to clean water and sanitation amid relentless bombardment."

Experts and rights groups told AFP that Israeli forces have destroyed buildings near the border in an attempt to create a buffer zone inside the Palestinian territory.

Israel has not publicly confirmed the plan, which Nadia Hardman, an expert on refugees at Human Rights Watch, said "may amount to a war crime." "We are seeing mounting evidence that Israel appears to be rendering large parts of Gaza unlivable," she said.

France's Sejourne told his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shoukry that he understood Cairo's concerns over "forced displacement" of Palestinians into Egypt from the Gaza Strip. "We condemn and will reject any action taken in this direction," he said.

Agencies